PEG-PLA and oligomeric PLA used for paclitaxel delivery

PolySciTech division of Akina, Inc. (www.polyscitech.com) provides a wide array of biodegradable research products including short-chain PLA and PEG-PLA copolymers. Recently, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison conjugated short-chain PLA to paclitaxel in order to form a prodrug (e.g. a molecule which degrades in the human body to generate a medicinal molecule). Subsequently, they loaded this prodrug into PEG-PLA nanocarriers. This system was tested in mice and it was found that the tumors (A549 human lung cancer) actually shrunk and regressed wheras loose PTX only served to only delay tumor growth. This research holds promise for improved chemotherapeutic outcomes. Read more: Tam, Yu Tong, Jieming Gao, and Glen S. Kwon. "Oligo (lactic acid) n-paclitaxel prodrugs for poly (ethylene glycol)-block-poly (lactic acid) micelles: Loading, release and backbiting conversion for anticancer activity." Journal of the American Chemical Society (2016). http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.6b03995